McGeer, Victoria2021-02-01McGeer, V. Enculturating folk psychologists. Synthese (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-020-02760-70039-7857http://hdl.handle.net/1885/220402This paper argues that our folk-psychological expertise is a special case of extended and enculturated cognitionwherewe learn to regulate both our own and others' thought and action in accord with a wide array of culturally shaped folk-psychological norms. The viewhas three noteworthy features: (1) it challenges a common assumption that the foundational capacity at work in folk-psychological expertise is one of interpreting behaviour in mentalistic terms (mindreading), arguing instead that successful mindreading is largely a consequence of successful mindshaping; (2) it argues that our folk-psychological expertise is not only socially scaffolded in development, it continues to be socially supported and maintained in maturity, thereby presenting a radically different picture of what mature folk-psychological competency amounts to; (3) it provides grounds for resisting a recent trend in theoretical explanations of quotidian social interaction that downplays the deployment of sophisticated mentalizing resources in understanding what others are doing.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [Grant Number DP140102468] and generous ongoing support from Princeton Universityapplication/pdfen-AU© 2020 Springer Nature B.V.Folk-psychologyMindshapingExtended mindEnculturated cognitionSkillEmbodied expertise2020-07-0110.1007/s11229-020-02760-72022-02-27